Wireless communication systems have become an important means by which many people worldwide have come to communicate. A wireless communication system may provide communication for a number of mobile stations, each of which may be serviced by a base station. As used herein, the term “mobile station” refers to an electronic device that may be used for voice and/or data communication over a wireless communication system. Examples of mobile stations include cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices, wireless modems, laptop computers, personal computers, etc. A mobile station may alternatively be referred to as an access terminal, a mobile terminal, a subscriber station, a remote station, a user terminal, a terminal, a subscriber unit, a mobile device, a wireless device, user equipment, or some other similar terminology. The term “base station” refers to a wireless communication station that is installed at a fixed location and used to communicate with mobile stations. A base station may alternatively be referred to as an access point, a Node B, an evolved Node B, or some other similar terminology.
A mobile station may communicate with one or more base stations via transmissions on the uplink and the downlink. The uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the mobile station to the base station, and the downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the mobile station.
The resources of a wireless communication system (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power) may be shared among multiple mobile stations. A variety of multiple access techniques are known, including code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA), and so forth.
Benefits may be realized by improved methods and apparatus related to the operation of wireless communication systems.